http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7059&lotIdNo=43001
http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7066&lotIdNo=23001
Showing posts with label Manslaughter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manslaughter. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Sunday, October 28, 2012
1985 - The New Defenders (Part Three)
The New Defenders: Teaming up the non-team part III
By: Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)
Wrapping up this three part look at The New Defenders, one conclusion already seems obvious. It should really have been titled ‘Moondragon… featuring the New Defenders’.
Both Peter B. Gillis and his predecessor J.M. DeMatteis were rather taken with Moondragon, featuring the arrogant telepath prominently during their runs. Gillis especially seemed determined to mine her backstory for all it was worth. Hinting at a deeper darkness growing underneath Moondragon’s exterior, Gillis revealed how young Heather Douglas grew from an innocent little girl to be the haughty high priestess of the mind.
As it turns out, Moondragon took her codename after beating an evil entity known as the Dragon of the Moon. This immensely powerful, immortal, and subversive creature tried to corrupt her, planting part of his evil inside her head. Refusing his offerings, Heather fought valiantly to remove his presence from her mind. Thinking she had succeeded in defeating the Dragon, her confidence quickly grew to borderline arrogance. In reality, the Dragon had left its permanent mark on her, an ever present and increasing temptation to give in and accept his power.
This approach allowed Gillis to show a new side to Moondragon. She had always been portrayed as a stuck up snob who was in love with her own power, which of course she was. But by having her resist the Dragon’s influence, rightly believing it would corrupt her, she became something of a lamentable anti-hero. At least, that’s what she considered herself to be. She felt she was fighting hard and doing the right thing and grew increasingly frustrated over the fact she didn’t receive any credit for it. A tragic notion that added a new layer to an otherwise one note character and led to an unexpected breakdown.
This outburst was her first step on the path to humility. Remember how Odin had placed that headband on her to dampen her powers, forcing Moondragon to relearn the ways of man? It finally came off when the Defenders were forced to go up against a band of Asgardian trolls who were planning an invasion of Midgard. The team was captured and the trolls offered to remove Moondragon’s headband. Despite being tempted by both her own desire to be free ánd the Dragon of the Moon, she outright refused and redeemed herself in the eyes, well, eye of the All-Father.
Freed from the headband, Moondragon’s full powers returned with a vengeance. Luckily, recent experiences had indeed tempered her arrogant behavior and she actually became a valuable and willing member of the team. Alas, disaster soon struck when the gamma spore creature formerly known as Ephraim Soles returned to threaten the Defenders again. After their initial fight in Gillis’ first issue, the creature escaped as a handful of tiny spores that infected the grass of a local cattle farm. When a rather unlucky cow ate the spore grass, it became pregnant… the eventual birth resulted in a revolting scene that somehow made it past the Comics Code Authority.
Quickly mutating into a massive, uncontrollable form, the spore creature made its way to the New Defenders base where it infected and invaded all it could find. The team defeated it, thanks to an ingenious combination of Moondragon and Gargoyle’s powers. But Moondragon didn’t escape unscathed, as subsequent issues revealed. She had been infected by the sentient spores who were slowly mutating her body into a new host… a process she would not survive. Faced with certain death, Moondragon finally succumbed to the Dragon in a moody, foreboding tale told in issues #143 & 144.
“I am free again, young ones.”
Over the course of # 144, the vastly more powerful Moondragon cleaned the New Defenders’ collective clocks. Blinding Angel, turning Gargoyle’s demon body against him and casually teleporting Valkyrie away, the Dragon seemed assured of victory. That is, until Brunhilda dramatically returned with her fellow Valkyries in tow. Odin had been aware of the Dragon’s presence in Moondragon, that’s why he released her in Valkyrie’s care, in preparation for the creature’s reemergence. In final combat, it was Cloud who delivered the apparent deathblow to Moondragon, but her remains were never found.
In the months that followed, Gillis dealt with the impact of the Moondragon controversy. Angel’s blindness proved incurable, Cloud was revealed to be a sentient nebula that assumed the forms of two teens who were both left comatose following a car accident, the team got a visit from the former Ghostrider and also gained a new member in the Atlantean warrior woman Andromeda. They also finally got around to electing an official leader: Angel’s girlfriend Candy Southern who didn’t have any superpowers but proved quite adept at handling the non team’s official team business. And while all of this was going down… In Siberia a mysterious stranger decided to go for a walk.
All in all, the New Defenders finally seemed ready to have another go at being a proper superhero team. Alas, there were two threats about to end their existence altogether. Moondragon had survived, still possessed by the Dragon and ready for revenge… But there was a far more lethal threat on the horizon: imminent cancellation. The year was 1986, the 25th anniversary of Marvel Comics and then-editor in chief Jim Shooter decided to celebrate a quarter century of established and beloved characters by starting a completely New Universe.
To make room in the company’s publishing schedule, several struggling titles received the axe. Power Man and Iron Fist was cancelled and the New Defenders shared their fate. Under the gun, Peter B. Gillis rushed to wrap up the book… and what better way to end things than by having Moondragon return to kill the team once and for all?
The New Defenders’ swansong was told in issues # 151 and the double sized 152, which was jam packed with the biggest wrap up and deck clearing exercise of the 1980s. The mysterious stranger turned out to be the Interloper, an Eternal who was the Dragon of the Moon’s arch enemy. Interloper revealed he had trained the insane telepathic hitman Manslaughter, who popped up wanting to join the team and actually proved invaluable during the final confrontation with Moondragon...
Gillis gives an impressive final showing in his portrayal of Manslaughter’s madness. Trying to preserve her sanity, Moondragon flees the scene in an attempt to exorcise the demons that just got pumped into her mind. And who would show up during this struggle but… The Beyonder?
Heck, this was still 1986 after all, there had to be a Secret Wars II tie-in at some point, right? The Beyonder did what every other jerry curled deus ex machina does best: show up and mess things up. Not recognizing Moondragon’s deeper issues, the one from beyond falls for her line that she wants to be his disciple… He grants her a fragment of his vast powers and departs, leaving her to head straight back to Defenders headquarters for a final showdown.
It turned out to be a brutal battle, one that only ended after Valkyrie, Andromeda, Manslaughter and the Interloper gave up their very lives to stop Moondragon. Only Beast, Angel and Iceman were left standing when the…dust… settled.
Ashes and dust… all that’s left of the once noble and proud New Defenders… AngelBeast and Iceman were the only ones left alive. They would soon join Cyclops and Jean Grey to form the first incarnation of X-Factor. And what of their fallen comrades? Apart from the Interloper, most of them would eventually return from the dead in a series of tales Gillis wrote for Solo Avengers #16,18, and 20. But those are stories best left for another time.
On a closing note: despite the rush of impending cancellation, Gillis brought Moondragon’s story full circle on the book’s last page. In spite of her being juiced up by the Beyonder’s power, let alone the Dragon’s corruption, she used her final moments to do the right thing. She restored Angel’s sight, cured Cloud’s comatose templates and even healed Chris Larmouth, a largely forgotten victim of the gamma spore creature’s second attack.
More importantly, she performed these Samaritan acts not as Moondragon, mistress of the mind or high priestess of the soul… but as Heather Douglas of Earth. Finally, she had learned just what being human meant… No longer did she seek to impose her will on her fellow man, all she did was give them the chance to live their lives. Heather Douglas triumphed over all her flaws and inherent evil, proving herself at long last to be the most human of us all.
By: Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)
Wrapping up this three part look at The New Defenders, one conclusion already seems obvious. It should really have been titled ‘Moondragon… featuring the New Defenders’.
Both Peter B. Gillis and his predecessor J.M. DeMatteis were rather taken with Moondragon, featuring the arrogant telepath prominently during their runs. Gillis especially seemed determined to mine her backstory for all it was worth. Hinting at a deeper darkness growing underneath Moondragon’s exterior, Gillis revealed how young Heather Douglas grew from an innocent little girl to be the haughty high priestess of the mind.
As it turns out, Moondragon took her codename after beating an evil entity known as the Dragon of the Moon. This immensely powerful, immortal, and subversive creature tried to corrupt her, planting part of his evil inside her head. Refusing his offerings, Heather fought valiantly to remove his presence from her mind. Thinking she had succeeded in defeating the Dragon, her confidence quickly grew to borderline arrogance. In reality, the Dragon had left its permanent mark on her, an ever present and increasing temptation to give in and accept his power.
This approach allowed Gillis to show a new side to Moondragon. She had always been portrayed as a stuck up snob who was in love with her own power, which of course she was. But by having her resist the Dragon’s influence, rightly believing it would corrupt her, she became something of a lamentable anti-hero. At least, that’s what she considered herself to be. She felt she was fighting hard and doing the right thing and grew increasingly frustrated over the fact she didn’t receive any credit for it. A tragic notion that added a new layer to an otherwise one note character and led to an unexpected breakdown.
This outburst was her first step on the path to humility. Remember how Odin had placed that headband on her to dampen her powers, forcing Moondragon to relearn the ways of man? It finally came off when the Defenders were forced to go up against a band of Asgardian trolls who were planning an invasion of Midgard. The team was captured and the trolls offered to remove Moondragon’s headband. Despite being tempted by both her own desire to be free ánd the Dragon of the Moon, she outright refused and redeemed herself in the eyes, well, eye of the All-Father.
Freed from the headband, Moondragon’s full powers returned with a vengeance. Luckily, recent experiences had indeed tempered her arrogant behavior and she actually became a valuable and willing member of the team. Alas, disaster soon struck when the gamma spore creature formerly known as Ephraim Soles returned to threaten the Defenders again. After their initial fight in Gillis’ first issue, the creature escaped as a handful of tiny spores that infected the grass of a local cattle farm. When a rather unlucky cow ate the spore grass, it became pregnant… the eventual birth resulted in a revolting scene that somehow made it past the Comics Code Authority.
Quickly mutating into a massive, uncontrollable form, the spore creature made its way to the New Defenders base where it infected and invaded all it could find. The team defeated it, thanks to an ingenious combination of Moondragon and Gargoyle’s powers. But Moondragon didn’t escape unscathed, as subsequent issues revealed. She had been infected by the sentient spores who were slowly mutating her body into a new host… a process she would not survive. Faced with certain death, Moondragon finally succumbed to the Dragon in a moody, foreboding tale told in issues #143 & 144.
“I am free again, young ones.”
Over the course of # 144, the vastly more powerful Moondragon cleaned the New Defenders’ collective clocks. Blinding Angel, turning Gargoyle’s demon body against him and casually teleporting Valkyrie away, the Dragon seemed assured of victory. That is, until Brunhilda dramatically returned with her fellow Valkyries in tow. Odin had been aware of the Dragon’s presence in Moondragon, that’s why he released her in Valkyrie’s care, in preparation for the creature’s reemergence. In final combat, it was Cloud who delivered the apparent deathblow to Moondragon, but her remains were never found.
In the months that followed, Gillis dealt with the impact of the Moondragon controversy. Angel’s blindness proved incurable, Cloud was revealed to be a sentient nebula that assumed the forms of two teens who were both left comatose following a car accident, the team got a visit from the former Ghostrider and also gained a new member in the Atlantean warrior woman Andromeda. They also finally got around to electing an official leader: Angel’s girlfriend Candy Southern who didn’t have any superpowers but proved quite adept at handling the non team’s official team business. And while all of this was going down… In Siberia a mysterious stranger decided to go for a walk.
All in all, the New Defenders finally seemed ready to have another go at being a proper superhero team. Alas, there were two threats about to end their existence altogether. Moondragon had survived, still possessed by the Dragon and ready for revenge… But there was a far more lethal threat on the horizon: imminent cancellation. The year was 1986, the 25th anniversary of Marvel Comics and then-editor in chief Jim Shooter decided to celebrate a quarter century of established and beloved characters by starting a completely New Universe.
To make room in the company’s publishing schedule, several struggling titles received the axe. Power Man and Iron Fist was cancelled and the New Defenders shared their fate. Under the gun, Peter B. Gillis rushed to wrap up the book… and what better way to end things than by having Moondragon return to kill the team once and for all?
The New Defenders’ swansong was told in issues # 151 and the double sized 152, which was jam packed with the biggest wrap up and deck clearing exercise of the 1980s. The mysterious stranger turned out to be the Interloper, an Eternal who was the Dragon of the Moon’s arch enemy. Interloper revealed he had trained the insane telepathic hitman Manslaughter, who popped up wanting to join the team and actually proved invaluable during the final confrontation with Moondragon...
Gillis gives an impressive final showing in his portrayal of Manslaughter’s madness. Trying to preserve her sanity, Moondragon flees the scene in an attempt to exorcise the demons that just got pumped into her mind. And who would show up during this struggle but… The Beyonder?
Heck, this was still 1986 after all, there had to be a Secret Wars II tie-in at some point, right? The Beyonder did what every other jerry curled deus ex machina does best: show up and mess things up. Not recognizing Moondragon’s deeper issues, the one from beyond falls for her line that she wants to be his disciple… He grants her a fragment of his vast powers and departs, leaving her to head straight back to Defenders headquarters for a final showdown.
It turned out to be a brutal battle, one that only ended after Valkyrie, Andromeda, Manslaughter and the Interloper gave up their very lives to stop Moondragon. Only Beast, Angel and Iceman were left standing when the…dust… settled.
Ashes and dust… all that’s left of the once noble and proud New Defenders… AngelBeast and Iceman were the only ones left alive. They would soon join Cyclops and Jean Grey to form the first incarnation of X-Factor. And what of their fallen comrades? Apart from the Interloper, most of them would eventually return from the dead in a series of tales Gillis wrote for Solo Avengers #16,18, and 20. But those are stories best left for another time.
On a closing note: despite the rush of impending cancellation, Gillis brought Moondragon’s story full circle on the book’s last page. In spite of her being juiced up by the Beyonder’s power, let alone the Dragon’s corruption, she used her final moments to do the right thing. She restored Angel’s sight, cured Cloud’s comatose templates and even healed Chris Larmouth, a largely forgotten victim of the gamma spore creature’s second attack.
More importantly, she performed these Samaritan acts not as Moondragon, mistress of the mind or high priestess of the soul… but as Heather Douglas of Earth. Finally, she had learned just what being human meant… No longer did she seek to impose her will on her fellow man, all she did was give them the chance to live their lives. Heather Douglas triumphed over all her flaws and inherent evil, proving herself at long last to be the most human of us all.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Guest Blog: 1984 - The New Defenders (Part Two)
The New Defenders: Teaming up the non-team part II
By: Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)
In the Spring of 1984, The New Defenders got a new writer in Peter B. Gillis who took the anything-but-non-team in entirely new directions.
Taking over with issue # 132, Gillis quickly changed the tone of the title, adding a new layer of horror and suspense previously absent from the book. Even the art by longtime Defenders penciller Don Perlin reflected these changes as it got a darker, grittier and slightly abstract feel.
In his opening tale, Gillis delivered a done-in-one story that smoothly showed how his run would unfold as the Defenders fought a rather unexpected threat. Ephraim Soles was an ordinairy man down on his luck, wandering across the New Mexico desert when he came across some plants. Looking for a meal, the hungry Soles devoured the vegetation that was actually growing on a fragment of the gamma bomb that had exploded there years earlier. Catching a fatal dose of radiation, Soles didn’t exactly die. After falling down, he got up and resumed his wandering, eventually turning up at New Defenders headquarters.
“Good Lord! What’s happening to him?!”
Soles mutated into a gamma powered spore creature that quickly expanded in size, threatening the team and their base. Despite their best efforts, the Defenders proved largely ineffectual in beating back or even containing Soles. The mood of the book quickly turned from run of the mill superhero comic to horror movie, as the heroes desperately fought a threat that continued to evolve, adapt and survive. In the end, Iceman used his powers to drain all moisture from the creature and killing it. Or did he?
This story really set the tone for Gillis’ first year on the title. Everyone and anything could turn dark on a moment’s notice. A relatively light hearted tale of the team helping out wacky oriental expeditors Cutlass and Typhoon against crimelord Ozu in # 133, set up the next issue when Ozu hired the insane, telepathic serial killer Manslaughter to rub them out.
New Defenders # 134 reads like a suspenseful slasher movie, with the Defenders cooped up in their New Mexico headquarters, paranoid and on guard against their new, mysterious foe who managed to infiltrate their base, leaving mocking messages announcing their inevitable demise.
Manslaughter actually makes good on his threats, ambushing and killing off Iceman, Cloud and Angel. He even manages to nab Valkyrie’s sword Dragonfang. After dipping the blade in poison, he taks the Asgardian out with a simple cut. Manslaughter even gets under Moondragon’s skin, as he uses his low level telepathy to invade her mind and spread his madness around. Moondragon was ready to kill Manslaughter for that, but the team rallied to defeat the villain and stop Heather from killing him. And then, Gillis had Cloud drop one heck of a bombshell…
“Please don’t cry, don’t hurt… Moondragon. I love you…”
Oh my. Lesbians in the 1980s? Well played, Gillis, well played indeed. So, who was Cloud anyway? She was the final team member added by DeMatteis before he left. Introduced as a villain in issue # 123, this beautiful blonde girl was able to become, well, a cloud. By issue # 127, she turned out to be an unwitting pawn of the Secret Empire and joined her former adversaries in getting revenge. Rehabilitating villains is hardly a new move, but what made Cloud’s inclusion especially interesting was the intense interest Moondragon showed in the young girl’s well-being.
After her initial profession of love, Cloud was wracked with guilt and shame, not able to understand how she could have these wrong thoughts and feelings. But she still grew closer to Moondragon and a resolution of sorts was inevitable. But this is still 1984, Marvel Comics or the Comics Code Authority would never allow an openly lesbian couple in comics. So, Gillis came up with another twist. Cloud had every reason to be confused about her feelings, as issue # 136 proved…
Problem? Problem solved. The Moondragon/Cloud relationship never really went anywhere after Moondragon turned down all overtures and simply moved on. But others had far more difficulty accepting Cloud’s dual nature. Iceman lusted after Cloud when he thought she was just a woman, but when the male version popped up, Bobby was left rather confused.
Ah, ever so subtle discussions of sexuality and how uncomfortable heterosexual men tend to get when there is even the slightest doubt they might be anything but straight. You’d think that after running around in little more than a speedo for most of his superhero career, Iceman would be the one superhero most secure about his orientation. Sadly enough, he wouldn’t learn from this mistake repeating the same immature homophobic behavior when Northstar admitted he had the hots for him during Chuck Austen’s Uncanny X-men run.
By the by, wonder where the New Defenders are flying off to as they were having this heart to heart? Well, remember how Manslaughter was taking out the team one by one? During that crisis, one New Defender was left unaccounted for: Gargoyle, who vanished mysteriously.
At the time, the team figured it was another one of Manslaughter’s traps but he had nothing to do with Isaac’s disappearance. As it turned out, an old Afghani mystic was to blame. Tired of the Mujahideen controlling his lands, the man used his powers to summon a demonic servant to deal with them. And Isaac’s body, still demonic in nature, obeyed the summoning chants and brought Gargoyle to Afghanistan where Isaac was forced to kill the soldiers that bothered the mystic.
Growing power hungry after this swift victory, the mystic decided to use his dark servant’s vast powers for personal gain. Still, Isaac’s mind was able to subtly influence the demon’s actions… first teleporting them to New York, hoping Doctor Strange would show up to free him. Sensing betrayal, the mystic ordered Gargoyle to take them away from the city that never sleeps… So he landed them in the Rocky Mountains where Moondragon was able to pick up Isaac’s cries for help.
A fearful fight ensued between the Defenders and the vastly more powerful Gargoyle. Isaac had to watch helplessly as his body grew to giant size and threatened the lives of his teammates. In the end, Valkyrie had no choice but to stab Gargoyle, while the Beast wielded Dragonfang to lob off Gargoyle’s hand.
In the end, it was Moondragon who used her powers to make contact with Isaac’s mind, buried deep within the demon’s brain. The two Defenders touched souls and Moondragon deduced a way to break the mystic’s hold over Gargoyle… simply blind him and knock him out. No sooner said than done. But Isaac had seen a terrible, hidden truth about Moondragon when he was inside her mind. So, while the victory might seem a little easy, Gargoyle’s revelation in the cliffhanger would set in motion the final chapter of Gillis’ run…
Sometimes, captions say it all.. In the third and final part of Anyone Remember The New Defenders… Moondragon’s secret origin is revealed as the headband comes off and, despite everyone’s best efforts…they’re all dust in the wind.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
